Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The world faces challenges and uncertainty these days like perhaps never before in modern history. Broken insolvent banking systems match the insolvent homeowners living in despair but with newfound hope of realigning their own balance sheets from simply not paying home mortgages in large numbers. Over a quarter million Bank of America home mortgage holders have not made a loan payment in a year, yet still occupy rent-free dwellings. The European sovereign debt has shaken the entire government financial structures, offering a preview of what comes to other nations. In its wake, a fire is lit under gold as a recognized safe haven asset that has no debt attachment or counter-party risk. Government budgets are in shambles throughout the Western world. Mexico can safely be called a failed state. Indeed, crisis has become the new norm. Indeed, stimulus and extreme liquidity buttresses have become the new norm. Indeed, sugar high on perceptions after stimulus has become the new norm. Indeed, war has become the new norm to define peace. It makes sense that restructure of the global monetary system would evoke a powerful response by the upper echelon bankers. Their response so far has been diverse attempts to preserve the system, combined with weak gestures on actual innovative concepts. Take for instance, the Straw Man built of the Intl Monetary Fund and its primary vehicle, the Special Drawing Rights, the equivalent of a rusty corrosive chopshop car with sputtering engine but a spiffy new paint job.

Against this backdrop, the global monetary system is clearly broken, and increasingly recognized as broken. Political and banking leaders have been working on solutions. In Europe they have been focusing on extreme solutions, but in the United States they have been focusing on more extreme measures to preserve the current system. The one main principle to recall about bubbles and Ponzis is that an accelerated supply of money is required to maintain even a constant size of the destructive condition. My firm point has been for two years that the first nations to abandon the USDollar as the foundation for their monetary, banking, financial, and economic systems will emerge as leaders in the next global chapter. The jump transition is extraordinarily difficult. The entire world, evidence seen in the G-20 Meetings, is actively pursing an alternative to the US$ as the global reserve currency. While they procrastinate, gold has taken up the slack within the vast void from inaction. Gold demand is on an accelerated rise for physical investment. Coin and bar shortages are almost everywhere, and gold mine output is on a worsening decline. Attention has grown on scrutiny of the many Exchange Traded Funds for gold & silver investment. Europe without question must first find a solution, and much progress has come. The quest for a monetary structural solution can be best seen in viewing the anemic IMF SDR concept for its lack of solution, versus the innovative aggressive plan of the New Euro currency. The patchwork SDR vehicle means continuation of a broken system, with the power baton held by multiple hands of the same indebted debilitated kings. The New Nordic Euro vehicle will involve a grand streamlined platform, better described as a Dollar Killer. It will remove dependence upon faith, that basis of fiat currency, and thus remove the potential of illicit control.

THE S.D.R. STRAWMAN NON-SOLUTION

As preface, consider the best parts of the patchwork SDR vehicle, and what benefits it offers. The Special Drawing Rights, denominated in US dollars, has their nominal value derived from a basket of currencies, tied to fixed amounts of Japanese Yen, USDollars, British Pounds, and Euros. The proportion each of these four currencies contributes to the nominal value of a SDR, reset every five years. A greater role for the SDR either to store foreign acquired reserves or to conduct transaction settlement does offer greater stability. It does so by essentially fixing the currency exchange rates within the participating group of currencies. While ignoring the reality of changing environment, it enforces stability from instilled constancy. Maybe the SDR could reset the component percentages every six or twelve months, instead of five years. The world is changing fast. The other benefit would be the greater confidence that comes when foreign reserves can be placed in a stable warehouse shed, even if the place bears traits of festering matter.

The SDR concept reveals desperation among the Western bankers, led by the Anglos. Their idea of switching to the SDR reveals desperation to retain continuity within a broken system. We see Europe struggling to maintain the unified Euro currency, bailing out banks for badly impaired sovereign debt, with the cost being to the entire European continent. By holding together, they risk sinking together from a broken system. Leaders rarely choose to examine why it is broken, preferring to put a typical bandaid or tourniquet on the gaping wounds. Instead of the patient walking, he stumbles repeatedly. The patient needs to be put to rest, and if possible, be given a respectful retirement ceremony.

The Special Drawing Rights is a life extension concept without solution. It represents tying a noose around the four major world currencies, so that they most assuredly sink together, hardly a raft, more like shackles. However, in the eyes of the Anglos, those Wall Street and London merchants of toxic bonds and conflicted credit swap contracts, the SDR is a poor attempt to divert attention away from viable constructive solutions. For two years, the Jackass has mentioned a Grand Paradigm Shift underway from the USDollar in both banking and commerce. The IMF SDR is an attempt to detour the G-20 nations from seeking a better vehicle that actually operates efficiently without toxic fumes of ruined debt and seized engines of insolvent banks. The mere fact that the G-8 Meeting has been eclipsed and supplanted by the G-20 Meeting carries great meaning. The Western dominated smaller G-8 is being recognized as yesterday's assembly, not only champions of systems fast in decay, but the responsible parties for export of high risk debt securities that have become lodged in most emerging economies. The idea floated of new SDR bonds or new FX contracts to link with the SDR cause unease, since they come with little credibility. Expect zero progress on these mechanics.

The Anglo leaders of the G-8 Pack wish to subvert the larger group of nations and their broad initiative to seek a workable sweeping solution, since it would surely not center on the USDollar. The G-20 nations clearly perceive the USDollar as exhausted, lacking viability, and the source of much of their own internal instability. The current establishment of bankers must pre-empt a Paradigm Shift away from the fiat system centered upon the USDollar. The Anglo Bankers appear to pursue another vehicle for principal usage, one still under the control of the developed world. It is merely a group of well connected similarly damaged vehicles. The Intl Monetary Fund currency, the Special Drawing Rights is the misguided goal for broader global usage as replacement to the USDollar, in a delay of its inevitable demise. My view is that the G-20 has no interest whatsoever in any broader SDR usage, which they see as the same dysfunctional bundled fiat papyrus that cannot float effectively on the oceans, showing a different flag. The paper currencies are all denominated debt masquerading as money. The foundation for any SDR vehicle would be just as damaged from a balance sheet perspective, maybe worse. The IMF is a mere focal point for the broken fiat constituents. Furthermore, admission of its own insolvency has come forth. The head of the IMF policy steering committee, Youssef Boutros-Ghali announced the fund requires $320 billion in order to be properly resourced, in his words. So they are badly underfunded too! Boutros-Ghali admitted that the IMF is essentially insolvent in its current form.

Fortunately, the broader group of organized nations is wise to the extreme duress of the current system, which lacks operating parts. They increasingly show more influence over the smaller group of powerful but weakened industrial nations. They hold outsized reserves in questionable bonds, no longer of the mortgage variety, but instead the sovereign variety. Emerging nations are outwardly worried that years of labor and export surpluses have been directed into tainted US$-based bonds and Euro-based bonds, now seen at high risk. The damage suffered from the EuroBond holdings has them worried of a larger series of losses from the USTreasury Bonds, kept inflated by monetization with increasingly awareness and publicity. The image for the United States is under a multi-faceted attack that includes its ecosystem.

The entire movement of the IMF SDR to serve as next global currency appears to be that of a Strawman with no substance. This effigy cannot walk, cannot bear weight, and cannot withstand storms. The SDR concept is designed to scare away the legitimate architects of a valid solution. What is lacking in the intellectual discussion among architects on the broken side of the table is an absolute truth, the Sound Money Axiom.

THE SOUND MONEY AXIOM: PAPER CURRENCY CAN NEVER REPLACE PAPER CURRENCY AS THE GLOBAL RESERVE, SINCE ONLY METAL CURRENCY HAS THAT CAPABILITY.

So the cobbled weak solution behind the IMF Special Drawing Rights initiative serves several purposes, designed to accomplish the following:

* continue to perpetuate the same broken fiat currency system * continue to enable banker power to be wielded by the Anglos * transfer the Keynesian Fiat prime pump to a still controlled location * drag down the group of currencies together, with illusion of stability * spread evenly detrimental effects of massive deficits into global inflation * create a new monolith of corrupt power in the IMF, whose track record is horrendous * work toward the creation of new sovereign basket bonds of uncertain value * divert attention away from actual effective lasting solutions.

NEW EURO PATHWAY

The two new Euro initiatives serve as systemic threats, delivered from outside the power center, as attacks to the fragile fiat flanks. The mere split of the Euro into two tiers, a seemingly sensible maneuver, avoids difficult decisions like bank-held bond writedowns, bank shutdowns, the whiplash effect of a fast rising new currency, and much more. Germany and France are examining a Two-Tier Euro currency structure. The intermediate stage of the new Northern Euro currency is in progress. The motive is to create a firewall of protection from the Southern imploding PIGS nations. German and French finance ministers are attempting to design a Two-Tier Euro currency system to separate stronger Northern European countries, protecting them from being dragged down by the weaker insolvent Southern states. A collectivist Southern solution protects banks exposed to sovereign debt, rather than a single nation being expelled. However, they will tend to sink together rather than alone. The UK Daily Telegraph is the news source for the dramatic option. See the article.

Senior European politicians do not believe they can withstand another crisis, but they must prepare for Spain and Italy next, with assured bigger shocks. The creation of a Super-Euro zone would initially include Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, and Finland. The broken parts in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain, even Ireland, would be relegated to the Mediterranean under-class. The Spanish banking implosion scares the central banks witless, and it should. Spain has a distinction of denying its bank corrosion reality. They have not written down much of any bank credit assets in two years, and have not reduced prices of properties in any sensible constructive fashion. They therefore have left themselves exposed to gigantic airpockets, where sudden shocks are assured.

The Two-Tiered Euro currency system is intended to cut out and remove the damaged insolvent nations they can no longer afford to bail out. Regard the haphazard solution as lacking substance and planning, replete with desperation. The PIGS sovereign debt is dragging down all of Central Europe. The pursuit of solutions is motivated by staring into the abyss, threatened by contagion of insolvency and default. France has lent $750 billion and Germany $500 billion to Spain respectively. And Italian Govt debt to be refinanced before the end of 2011 is 10 times that of Greece. Lead nations are frustrated by being attached by a ball & chain to the wrecked PIGS nations. Politicians have suffered lost support in elections, are deeply concerned about lost power, and seek alternative solutions of radical type, since their finances are being ruined slowly. This Two-Tiered initiative is NOT a solution, but rather a step away from centralization that will not avert the tumble step toward sovereign debt default. The Two-Tiered approach serves mainly to develop the psychology, in my view, to condition the mindset for reform with substance, to embark on a new path with some hint of innovation, and to light a fire under the process. It urges a solution out of the box.

PRECURSOR TO NEW NORDIC EURO

Witness the precursor to the New Nordic Euro. This is the much more realistic lasting solution, with systems being put in place, with important contracts being signed for installation of support systems. The wealthier Northern European nations seek to protect themselves, while simultaneously setting up the necessary structure that would enable reform and restructure to the indebted Southern Europeans. Take the concept of a forked split, but put different meat on the bones. Germany would lead a group of countries out of the existing Euro into a new single currency. The old Euro would become the Latin Euro or Southern Euro, whatever name suits them. The Latin Euro currency after the split would decline sharply against the newly hatched German-centric Euro. The devaluation would render great economic stimulus to the Southern nations. Important difficult decisions would have to be made regarding debt writedowns, forgiveness, and restructure. A perceived driving motive in the plan is to provide Southern nations some security from remaining within a group, so individual distressed nations like Spain or Italy would be spared the stress of being forced to contend with their situations alone. The bunker mentality will not spare them of continued deep distress. The consequences for any expelled nation would be catastrophic to bankers holding any sovereign PIGS debt, a problem not mitigated by any bicameral plan. The only assurance in this chaotic crisis is change coming to the EuroZone, radical change. In time, my full expectation is for each Southern Europe nation to opt to go it alone, to revert to the old native currency, to devalue it more, and inflate with abandon with spectacular deficits incurred, incite some nationalism, and slide badly from prosperity into poverty.

When practicality and feasibility dictate very difficult decisions to be made, with actual full implementation made final, a simple split of the current Euro will not be possible. It sounds good, and has value primarily in altering the psychology toward even more aggressive reform. Finally, the design of the New Nordic Euro will be on the table, with its radical but extremely necessary and obligatory requirements. A simple Euro currency split cannot work, since it does not solve the shared debt problem. A new currency must have a rock solid foundation built of hard assets, not a floating raft of papyrus built still of paper money.

For those who believe the New Euro is a ruse or dream, consider this. A Hat Trick Letter subscriber in Copenhagen Denmark offered a note with meat, for which the Jackass is grateful. He confirms the New Nordic Euro is coming into reality, as a result of conversation with his banker. By email, the man sent the message, "It is amazing to see how things play out like a script! I recently talked to the German chief economist of Barclays Thorsten Polleit. When confronted with the Nordic Euro currency idea, he nodded silently, with a strange look of having a secret cover blown away. He did not comment on it even though we were having a quite informal talk. The warmest of greetings from the heart of Copenhagen." Word is spreading, impossible to contain, since too important.

So the European innovations on currency reform and redesign have some formidable challenges. The simple Two-Tier Euro split has many obstacles to overcome:

Gold satisfies the above criteria when attached formally to a monetary currency vehicle the strength, durability, credibility, and freedom from debt. Germany plays a role filled with intrigue. They cooperate with the Wall Street and London bankers, whose prestige has vanished from the $trillion mortgage bond fraud, aggravated by their nasty attacks against sovereign bonds. German consultants advised Switzerland and Dubai to remove gold bullion from custodial accounts at the New York Fed. The Germans led the campaign for the Saudis to herald future crude oil payments outside the USDollar framework. Now German parties are the primary proponents, designers, architects, and engineers to a new revolutionary currency. After installation, the New Nordic Euro will serve as a Dollar Killer in my view. Americans are blind to the upcoming broadside assault, arrogant to the end that the King Dollar will live forever, oblivious to the Paradigm Shift in progress. The irony is thick. The Germans, home of the failed Nazi Third Reich, are the champions for establishment of a monetary system free from the tentacles of the last relics of the current Fascist Business Model where power lines connect to New York and London.

As the Anglo power podium contends with sweeping global monetary reform, great wealth will evaporate from the significant movement away from the USDollar as global reserve currency. Its value must eventually be determined by the free market, and that value will come at a shocking low level. My belief is that any new widely used gold-backed (or hard asset) currency embraced by the major nations of the world will act as a Dollar Killer, and usher the United States into the Third World. The linchpin is usage of the New Nordic Euro for crude oil sales, a requirement as part of an alliance with OPEC. That feature is scheduled for later. Imagine the USEconomy fretfully buying New Nordic Euros so it can fetch crude oil, foreign cars, or home electronics. The USDollar would descend each and every month in value, in devaluation. Eventually the United States would adopt the Nordic Euro, but only after tremendous damage, huge asset losses, and much more lost power & prestige.

FRENCH PASTRY & RUSSIAN OIL

Tremendous posturing and preparation are underway behind the curtains, out of view. France wishes to be included in the New Nordic Euro, due mainly to image and prestige. It lacks sufficient export surplus and national wealth to be an equal partner. In fact, France is more like the PIGS nations than like Germany, without a doubt, as per annual debt and cumulative debt. Leaders in France had better be cautious of what they wish for. An equal partner among Northern European nations is unlikely. They might have to settle serving as German squires, carrying luggage and delivering messages. Posing as a strong nation under any new currency regime, even if temporary, will deliver quick shocks to Paris, hardly a center of potency.

Russia on the other hand is making preparations to establish Moscow as an important financial center. The Kremlin strives to elevate the Russian Ruble to a reserve currency. They want an end to USDollar domination. A complex strong financial center in Moscow requires many challenges to be met, and diverse financial assets to be freely traded, with open borders. Moscow is working toward a role within the New Nordic Euro framework, toward guarantee of commodity supply. The challenge to establish an international financial hub is great. A reserve currency requires the openness to trade it on the FOREX, and strong capital markets for currency, bonds, and stocks, along with investment banking and respect for contract law. These are the challenges. My sources tell of Russia working closely with the designers toward the foundation of the New Nordic Euro, in commodity supply guarantees. Rumors are swirling that the new hard asset currency might have not only a gold component, but a crude oil component as well, maybe even an industrial metal component.

After such profound bond fraud in New York and London, the door is open in foreign lands. At a St Petersburg Intl Economic Forum, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly stated his multi-faceted goal: to make the Ruble one of several world reserve currencies, and to establish Moscow as a global financial hub. The vast nation under nine timezones is in possession of natural resources to support a global currency. The world might require up to six reserve currencies, Medvedev believes, without any direct mention by him of either participation with the New Nordic Euro or a gold-backed Russian Ruble currency. The Kremlin wishes to reduce the USDollar dominance, and if truth be told, reduce the import of heroin from neighboring Afghanistan. See the Moscow Drug Conference that concluded last week, co-sponsored by the United Nations Drug Task Force. Russia has followed through on their agenda, having sold USTreasurys for a fifth consecutive month in April. In fact, all BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) were net sellers of US$-based assets in April. Central bank Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev announced in a June 16th interview more diversification plans for its reserves. A tidbit, as Medvedev this week visited Apple Computer and Cisco systems in the United States. Look for a possible role for Cisco in the financial hub and Apple products on retail shelves.

GOLD OUTPERFORMS U.S. STOCKS

Some extremely important developments have occurred in the gold market. The most significant and earth changing has been the recognition of Gold as a reserve asset alternative, not for commerce, but for foreign reserves asset management. Wealth is scrambling to find security and to achieve preserved valud. As the USDollar and Euro currency have undergone extreme shocks and have withstood the aftermath of stimulus, rescue, and nationalization, with all the attendant damage to global confidence, Gold has emerged as nobody's counter-party risk, an asset free from debt. The gold rise continues to be resisted by extremely large and suspicious futures contract shorting by the Big Four Banks. Consider the June Gold Call Options as they came due to expire three weeks ago. In predictable fashion, vast short sales arrived just in time to ruin the value of call options whose predominant strike price was $1200 per oz. Open Interest jumped as price fell. The CFTC and its commission Gary Gensler seem unaware or not interested, despite a more vigilant commentary. Ditto for the Silver Call Options due to expire this week, as the silver price has suddenly fallen by $1.00/oz in three days, just enough to ruin more call options held.

My firm belief is that every magnificent government or central bank Quantitative Ease program, or big bank rescue, or ongoing nationalized Fannie/AIG payment, the potential price for gold rises $1000/oz and for silver rises $30/oz. The key remains: nothing is being fixed, no reforms put in place, no bank liquidations of substance occur, just more wasteful monetary creation to keep the patchwork system going.

Individual investors should regard the stock market behavior as evidence of a deceptive loss of wealth. No nominal gains have been registered in ten years, which means a loss in purchase power is compounded at 5% to 7% per year. Almost no real gains have been registered in 40 years. Since 2001, gold has more than quadrupled in price, almost quintupled, while the usual suspects ply their trade on Wall Street to denigrate it. The propaganda against gold is unending, despite its obvious success. It even pays a dividend yield of sorts, from writing call options on gold or silver futures contracts. Ask Warren Buffet, who is quite familiar. Some wayward analysts actually claim that gold has not kept pace against inflation. They must not comprehend its 400+% gains in the last decade. Gold will continue to outperform all assets, since their trading activity is too deeply intertwined with the currencies and their national debts.

Jim Willie CB is a statistical analyst in marketing research and retail forecasting. He holds a PhD in Statistics. His career has stretched over 24 years. He aspires to thrive in the financial editor world, unencumbered by the limitations of economic credentials. Visit his free website to find articles from topflight authors at www.GoldenJackass.com . For personal questions about subscriptions, contact him at JimWillieCB@aol.com

The Afghan War is the longest war in U.S. history. It began in 1980 and continues to rage. It began under Democrats but has been fought under both Republican and Democratic administrations, making it truly a bipartisan war. The conflict is an odd obsession of U.S. foreign policy, one that never goes away and never seems to end. As the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal reminds us, the Afghan War is now in its fourth phase.The Afghan War’s First Three Phases

The first phase of the Afghan War began with the Soviet invasion in December 1979, when the United States, along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, organized and sustained Afghan resistance to the Soviets. This resistance was built around mujahideen, fighters motivated by Islam. Washington’s purpose had little to do with Afghanistan and everything to do with U.S.-Soviet competition. The United States wanted to block the Soviets from using Afghanistan as a base for further expansion and wanted to bog the Soviets down in a debilitating guerrilla war. The United States did not so much fight the war as facilitate it. The strategy worked. The Soviets were blocked and bogged down. This phase lasted until 1989, when Soviet troops were withdrawn.

The second phase lasted from 1989 until 2001. The forces the United States and its allies had trained and armed now fought each other in complex coalitions for control of Afghanistan. Though the United States did not take part in this war directly, it did not lose all interest in Afghanistan. Rather, it was prepared to exert its influence through allies, particularly Pakistan. Most important, it was prepared to accept that the Islamic fighters it had organized against the Soviets would govern Afghanistan. There were many factions, but with Pakistani support, a coalition called the Taliban took power in 1996. The Taliban in turn provided sanctuary for a group of international jihadists called al Qaeda, and this led to increased tensions with the Taliban following jihadist attacks on U.S. facilities abroad by al Qaeda.

The third phase began on Sept. 11, 2001, when al Qaeda launched attacks on the mainland United States. Given al Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan, the United States launched operations designed to destroy or disrupt al Qaeda and dislodge the Taliban. The United States commenced operations barely 30 days after Sept. 11, which was not enough time to mount an invasion using U.S. troops as the primary instrument. Rather, the United States made arrangements with factions that were opposed to the Taliban (and defeated in the Afghan civil war). This included organizations such as the Northern Alliance, which had remained close to the Russians; Shiite groups in the west that were close to the Iranians and India; and other groups or subgroups in other regions. These groups supported the United States out of hostility to the Taliban and/or due to substantial bribes paid by the United States.

The overwhelming majority of ground forces opposing the Taliban in 2001 were Afghan. The United States did, however, insert special operations forces teams to work with these groups and to identify targets for U.S. airpower, the primary American contribution to the war. The use of U.S. B-52s against Taliban forces massed around cities in the north caused the Taliban to abandon any thought of resisting the Northern Alliance and others, even though the Taliban had defeated them in the civil war.

Unable to hold fixed positions against airstrikes, the Taliban withdrew from the cities and dispersed. The Taliban were not defeated, however; they merely declined to fight on U.S. terms. Instead, they redefined the war, preserving their forces and regrouping. The Taliban understood that the cities were not the key to Afghanistan. Instead, the countryside would ultimately provide control of the cities. From the Taliban point of view, the battle would be waged in the countryside, while the cities increasingly would be isolated.

The United States simply did not have sufficient force to identify, engage and destroy the Taliban as a whole. The United States did succeed in damaging and dislodging al Qaeda, with the jihadist group’s command cell becoming isolated in northwestern Pakistan. But as with the Taliban, the United States did not defeat al Qaeda because the United States lacked significant forces on the ground. Even so, al Qaeda prime, the original command cell, was no longer in a position to mount 9/11-style attacks.

During the Bush administration, U.S. goals for Afghanistan were modest. First, the Americans intended to keep al Qaeda bottled up and to impose as much damage as possible on the group. Second, they intended to establish an Afghan government, regardless of how ineffective it might be, to serve as a symbolic core. Third, they planned very limited operations against the Taliban, which had regrouped and increasingly controlled the countryside. The Bush administration was basically in a holding operation in Afghanistan. It accepted that U.S. forces were neither going to be able to impose a political solution on Afghanistan nor create a coalition large enough control the country. U.S. strategy was extremely modest under Bush: to harass al Qaeda from bases in Afghanistan, maintain control of cities and logistics routes, and accept the limits of U.S. interests and power.

The three phases of American involvement in Afghanistan had a common point: All three were heavily dependent on non-U.S. forces to do the heavy lifting. In the first phase, the mujahideen performed this task. In the second phase, the United States relied on Pakistan to manage Afghanistan’s civil war. In the third phase, especially in the beginning, the United States depended on Afghan forces to fight the Taliban. Later, when greater numbers of American and allied forces arrived, the United States had limited objectives beyond preserving the Afghan government and engaging al Qaeda wherever it might be found (and in any event, by 2003, Iraq had taken priority over Afghanistan). In no case did the Americans use their main force to achieve their goals.The Fourth Phase of the Afghan War

The fourth phase of the war began in 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama decided to pursue a more aggressive strategy in Afghanistan. Though the Bush administration had toyed with this idea, it was Obama who implemented it fully. During the 2008 election campaign, Obama asserted that he would pay greater attention to Afghanistan. The Obama administration began with the premise that while the Iraq War was a mistake, the Afghan War had to be prosecuted. It reasoned that unlike Iraq, which had a tenuous connection to al Qaeda at best, Afghanistan was the group’s original base. He argued that Afghanistan therefore should be the focus of U.S. military operations. In doing so, he shifted a strategy that had been in place for 30 years by making U.S. forces the main combatants in the war.

Though Obama’s goals were not altogether clear, they might be stated as follows:

1. Deny al Qaeda a base in Afghanistan. 2. Create an exit strategy from Afghanistan similar to the one in Iraq by creating the conditions for negotiating with the Taliban; make denying al Qaeda a base a condition for the resulting ruling coalition. 3. Begin withdrawal by 2011.

To do this, there would be three steps:

1. Increase the number and aggressiveness of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. 2. Create Afghan security forces under the current government to take over from the Americans. 3. Increase pressure on the Taliban by driving a wedge between them and the population and creating intra-insurgent rifts via effective counterinsurgency tactics.

In analyzing this strategy, there is an obvious issue: While al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan in 2001, Afghanistan is no longer its primary base of operations. The group has shifted to Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries. As al Qaeda is thus not dependent on any one country for its operational base, denying it bases in Afghanistan does not address the reality of its dispersion. Securing Afghanistan, in other words, is no longer the solution to al Qaeda.

Obviously, Obama’s planners fully understood this. Therefore, sanctuary denial for al Qaeda had to be, at best, a secondary strategic goal. The primary strategic goal was to create an exit strategy for the United States based on a negotiated settlement with the Taliban and a resulting coalition government. The al Qaeda issue depended on this settlement, but could never be guaranteed. In fact, neither the long-term survival of a coalition government nor the Taliban policing al Qaeda could be guaranteed.

The exit of U.S. forces represents a bid to reinstate the American strategy of the past 30 years, namely, having Afghan forces reassume the primary burden of fighting. The creation of an Afghan military is not the key to this strategy. Afghans fight for their clans and ethnic groups. The United States is trying to invent a national army where no nation exists, a task that assumes the primary loyalty of Afghans will shift from their clans to a national government, an unlikely proposition.The Real U.S. Strategy

Rather than trying to strengthen the Karzai government, the real strategy is to return to the historical principles of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan: alliance with indigenous forces. These indigenous forces would pursue strategies in the American interest for their own reasons, or because they are paid, and would be strong enough to stand up to the Taliban in a coalition. As CIA Director Leon Panetta put it this weekend, however, this is proving harder to do than expected.

The American strategy is, therefore, to maintain a sufficient force to shape the political evolution on the ground, and to use that force to motivate and intimidate while also using economic incentives to draw together a coalition in the countryside. Operations like those in Helmand province — where even Washington acknowledges that progress has been elusive and slower than anticipated — clearly are designed to try to draw regional forces into regional coalitions that eventually can enter a coalition with the Taliban without immediately being overwhelmed. If this strategy proceeds, the Taliban in theory will be spurred to negotiate out of concern that this process eventually could leave it marginalized.

There is an anomaly in this strategy, however. Where the United States previously had devolved operational responsibility to allied groups, or simply hunkered down, this strategy tries to return to devolved responsibilities by first surging U.S. operations. The fourth phase actually increases U.S. operational responsibility in order to reduce it.

From the grand strategic point of view, the United States needs to withdraw from Afghanistan, a landlocked country where U.S. forces are dependent on tortuous supply lines. Whatever Afghanistan’s vast mineral riches, mining them in the midst of war is not going to happen. More important, the United States is overcommitted in the region and lacks a strategic reserve of ground forces. Afghanistan ultimately is not strategically essential, and this is why the United States has not historically used its own forces there.

Obama’s attempt to return to that track after first increasing U.S. forces to set the stage for the political settlement that will allow a U.S. withdrawal is hampered by the need to begin terminating the operation by 2011 (although there is no fixed termination date). It will be difficult to draw coalition partners into local structures when the foundation — U.S. protection — is withdrawing. Strengthening local forces by 2011 will be difficult. Moreover, the Taliban’s motivation to enter into talks is limited by the early withdrawal. At the same time, with no ground combat strategic reserve, the United States is vulnerable elsewhere in the world, and the longer the Afghan drawdown takes, the more vulnerable it becomes (hence the 2011 deadline in Obama’s war plan).

In sum, this is the quandary inherent in the strategy: It is necessary to withdraw as early as possible, but early withdrawal undermines both coalition building and negotiations. The recruitment and use of indigenous Afghan forces must move extremely rapidly to hit the deadline (though officially on track quantitatively, there are serious questions about qualitative measures) — hence, the aggressive operations that have been mounted over recent months. But the correlation of forces is such that the United States probably will not be able to impose an acceptable political reality in the time frame available. Thus, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is said to be opening channels directly to the Taliban, while the Pakistanis are increasing their presence. Where a vacuum is created, regardless of how much activity there is, someone will fill it.

Therefore, the problem is to define how important Afghanistan is to American global strategy, bearing in mind that the forces absorbed in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the United States vulnerable elsewhere in the world. The current strategy defines the Islamic world as the focus of all U.S. military attention. But the world has rarely been so considerate as to wait until the United States is finished with one war before starting another. Though unknowns remain unknowable, a principle of warfare is to never commit all of your reserves in a battle — one should always maintain a reserve for the unexpected. Strategically, it is imperative that the United States begin to free up forces and re-establish its ground reserves.

Given the time frame the Obama administration’s grand strategy imposes, and given the capabilities of the Taliban, it is difficult to see how it will all work out. But the ultimate question is about the American obsession with Afghanistan. For 30 years, the United States has been involved in a country that is virtually inaccessible for the United States. Washington has allied itself with radical Islamists, fought against radical Islamists or tried to negotiate with radical Islamists. What the United States has never tried to do is impose a political solution through the direct application of American force. This is a new and radically different phase of America’s Afghan obsession. The questions are whether it will work and whether it is even worth it.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Posted By admin On June 24, 2010 @ 4:26 pm In Featured Stories | 70 Comments

Kurt NimmoInfowars.comJune 24, 2010

Earlier this week Reuters reported on a massive amount of methane discovered in the Gulf of Mexico. Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler said methane gas levels in some areas are “astonishingly high.” Kessler recently returned from a 10-day research expedition near the BP oil gusher. Kessler’s team measured both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP’s destroyed wellhead. “There is an incredible amount of methane in there,” Kessler told reporters. He said the level may be as much as one million times the normal level.

In late May BP said methane makes up about 40 percent of the leaking crude by mass. In addition to methane, large mounts of toxic hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride are leaking into the Gulf according to the EPA and others.

Lindsay Williams, a former Alaskan pipeline chaplain with high-level oil industry connections, told the Alex Jones Show on June 10 that deadly gases are indeed escaping from the breached wellhead.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madson, writing for Oil Price, states that his sources inside the federal government, FEMA, and the US Army Corps of Engineers are dealing with a prospective “dead zone” created by the escaping methane within a 200 mile radius from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In addition, Madsen reports, Corexit 9500, the oil dispersant used by BP, is viewed by FEMA sources as mixing with evaporated water from the Gulf. This deadly mixture is then absorbed by rain clouds and produces toxic precipitation that threatens to continue killing marine and land animals, plant life, and humans within a 200-mile radius of the Deepwater Horizon disaster site in the Gulf.

The “dead zone” created by a combination of methane gas and Corexit toxic rain, Madsen continues, will ultimately result in the evacuation and long-term abandonment of cities and towns within the 200-mile radius of the oil gusher.

On June 13, SoCal Martial Law Alerts (SCMLA) predicted that Gulf states would be evacuated. “Greg Evensen, a retired Kansas Highway Patrolman, estimates that 30-40 million people would need to be evacuated away from the Gulf’s coastline (i.e. at least 200 miles inland),” SCMLA reported.

In order to accomplish this gargantuan feat, the federal government (through FEMA and other agencies) would most likely seek first to control and manage the transportation system and then operate relocation centers to manage evacuees. Toward this end, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already declared the airspace over the oil spill site to be a no-fly zone until further notice. Various sources have indicated that local police, highway patrol, National Guard, US military and foreign troops may be involved in an operation to evacuate the Gulf Coast. In fact, the Governor of Louisiana has already requested evacuation assistance (i.e. National Guard) for his state from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Madsen’s trusted sources now lend credence to the SCMLA report.

DK Matai reports that by some geologists’ estimates, the methane now escaping into the Gulf may have been part of a massive bubble trapped for thousands of years under the sea floor. “More than a year ago, geologists expressed alarm in regard to BP and Transocean putting their exploratory rig directly over this massive underground reservoir of methane. Warnings were raised before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that the area of seabed chosen might be unstable and inherently dangerous,” writes Matai.

Matai and others fear the methane — under intense pressure (experts estimate the pressure to be between 30,000 and 70,000 pounds per square inch) — may form a bubble that would then rupture the seabed and erupt with an explosion.

“The bubble is likely to explode upwards propelled by more than 50,000 psi of pressure, bursting through the cracks and fissures of the sea floor, fracturing and rupturing miles of ocean bottom with a single extreme explosion,” Matai explains. “If the toxic gas bubble explodes, it might simultaneously set off a tsunami traveling at a high speed of hundreds of miles per hour. Florida might be most exposed to the fury of a tsunami wave. The entire Gulf coastline would be vulnerable, if the tsunami is manifest. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia might experience the effects of the tsunami according to some sources.”

In is not certain the federal government is concerned about the prospect of a tsunami. However, if Madsen’s sources are correct, they are concerned about the release of deadly hydrogen sulfide, benzene, methylene chloride, and the prospect of toxic rain.

A mass evacuation of the Gulf states would be impossible without a declaration of martial law. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the government all but declared martial law in New Orleans and the southern Gulf Coast — it was deemed a “state of emergency,” not officially martial law — and this gave rise to the largest military mobilization since the so-called Civil War. Combat-equipped troops and private contractors went house-to-house to enforce the complete removal of the civilian population in New Orleans and also confiscate guns and leave residents defenseless.

Moreover, FEMA imposed iron-grip censorship of the media. On September 7, 2005, MSNBC’s Brian Williams reported that the city had “reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement.” Williams and his crew were ordered to stop taking photographs by gun-toting National Guard troops. Williams said he experienced “the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.”

Indeed, if Florida and the Gulf states are evacuated as predicted — and again, Madsen’s sources are usually impeccable — a large part of the country will be separated from the United States and placed under martial law.

Thirty-Two States are Now Officially BankruptWHAT THE COMMERCIAL MEDIA WON'T TELL YOU

Thirty-Two States are Now Officially Bankrupt

$37.8 Billion Borrowed From US Treasury To Fund Unemployment Insurance

Global Research , May 23, 2010

Zero Hedge - 2010-05-21

Courtesy of Economic Policy Journal we now know that the majority of American states are currently insolvent, and that the US Treasury has been conducting a shadow bailout of at least 32 US states.

Over 60% of Americans receiving state unemployment benefits are getting these directly from the US government, as 32 states have now borrowed $37.8 billion from Uncle Sam to fund unemployment insurance.

The states in most dire condition, are, not unexpectedly, the unholy trifecta of California ($6.9 billion borrowed), Michigan ($3.9 billion), and New York ($3.2 billion). With this form of shadow bailout occurring, one can only wonder how many other shadow programs are currently in operation tofund states under the table with federal money.

The full list of America's 32 insolvent states is below, sorted in order of bankruptedness :

When BP drills in Norwegian waters they are required by law to use an accoustic switch.

In American waters they don't have to!!!!! Please watch video.

The REAL REASON Behind the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico - 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77pBcf0o444

Deregulation is the real (underlying) reason / cause behind the US oil spill by British Petroleum (BP) in 2010 offthe coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Deregulation coupled with lax government oversight (lackies appointed by Dick Cheney at the helm) lead to the omission of key safety features and protocols, a free pass for drilling licenses, emphasis on profit over safety, and absolutely NO PLAN for containment of blowouts.

For example, George W Bush and Dick Cheney - THE MAN WHO IS REALLY TO BLAME FOR THIS MESS!!- helped block a 2002/03 Bill that would have required the use of acoustic switches to activate the blowout preventer (BOP).

When the rig blew up, they had to MANUALLY activate the switch by sending robotic submersibles. This wasall but impossible since the rig was in flames and the priority was putting it out and saving lives; this was easily foreseen. In addition, BP did not want to lose an oil well (by activating the BOP); this would have cost themfuture profit in addition to the costs for exploration and preparation of the well. Eventually the rig collapsed andsank to the ocean floor. Because the rig was STILL ATTACHED to the well head / BOP, it bent or damagedthe BOP making it unusable.

Again, this is something that could have been foreseen; i.e. the need to activate the BOP immediately in the caseof catastrophic rig failure, to avoid potential damage to the BOP. Profit wins over safety; BP must avoid activatingthe BOP at all costs. An acoustic switch would have allowed them to IMMEDIATELY stopthe well head (activate the BOP) as soon as the explosion happened.

The BOP would not have been at risk for failure (due to rig collapsing); but, the lack of a remote switch and need to save the well (for profit and avoidance of loss) meant that they delayed trying to activate it. By that timethe damage to the BOP had been done. Lastly, all of the post-blowout efforts have been focused on SAVING thewell; i.e. it was only after more than a month before BP attempted the TOPKILL method, which would have sealedthe well. Attempts before that were about slowing the flow of oil or collecting it. Why did BP not try the TOPKILL method right away?Drill Baby, Drill! Spill Baby, Spill. Now, clean it the fock up!

BP And Halliburton Build Legal Teams, Attempt To Buy Off Government Officials (5 June 2010) http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/03/bp-halliburton-buy-off/

5 Facing possible jail time for their roles in the largest oil spill in American history, BP and Halliburton are building high-powered legal teams with "deep Department of Justice and White House ties." But the companies are pursuing other means to defend themselves as well. Halliburton's campaign donations have spiked as it tries to curry favor with key members of Congress investigating the disaster. The company donated $17,000 in May, making it "the busiest donation month for Halliburton's PAC since September 2008," Politico reports. Thirteen of the 14 contributions from May went to Republicans, while seven went to members of Congress who are "on committees with oversight of the oil spill and its aftermath":

(...) Since January of 2008, BP lobbyists have spent $30 million to influence legislation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Some coastal governors have benefited from BP as well. BP and other oil companies gave Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) $1.8 million dollars for his campaign, and since the spill, he's been aggressively downplaying the disaster and encouraging people to visit his state's oily beaches. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) traveled to a BP-funded conference in Houston last month "to lobby aggressively to drill for oil and natural gas without delay." Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) dismissed potential BP negligence by calling the spill an "act of God" at a trade association funded by BP in May.

"Avatar" and "Titanic" director James Cameron on Wednesday evening criticized those responsible for stopping thegeyser of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and again offered the assistance of the private team of deep-sea expertswith whom which he has worked on several underwater films and exploration efforts. "Over the last few weeks I'vewatched, as we all have, with growing horror and heartache, watching what's happening in the Gulf and thinking thosemorons don't know what they're doing,"

Cameron said at the D: All Things Digital conference sponsored by The Wall Street Journal near Los Angeles.Cameron developed expertise in deep sea robotic vehicles and submersibles over a period of 22 years, he said. (...) Cameron saidhe has not been in touch with anyone from the White House, and that earlier proffers of assistance he had made to BPwere rebuffed. "They could not have been more gracious but they basically said, 'We've got this,'" he said. Cameron saidone reason he hoped his offer of access to private film-equipped deep-water vehicles would be taken up was to moreaccurately convey what was happening under water. "The government really needs to have its own independent ability to go down there and image the site, survey the site and do its own investigation and monitor it," Cameron said. "Becauseif you're not monitoring it independently, you're asking the perpetrator to give you the video of the crime scene."

BP, We Demand Respirators for ALL Clean Up Workers (June 3, 2010)

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/52644/

Oil clean up workers are getting sick. BP is not providing high quality respirators for everyone. By using the conventions of journalism, the misuse of science, after-the-fact lawyering, appealing to macho vanity of some workers, and plain ol' bs to all workers, BP is getting away with this. But you might be able to do something about it. CLIP

Combating Exposure to Oil-spill Toxins

http://www.healthfreedomrights.com/

In AL, MS, LA, TX and Mexico, as soon as prevailing weather conditions changes the dew points, the prevailing winds full of Benzenes and other crude oil VOC's will occupy the air spaces, begin condensing, coastal and inland fogs will be relatively toxic....warnings are extreme benzene exposure to respiratory, skin absorption and direct diffusion into the bloodstream if contact with waters are made, containing pools of crude oil sludges. Please pass this information along, especially to those in sates surrounding the Gulf.... and as the underwater sludges creep up the eastern seaboard of the US...Cuba. Inhalation of benzene laden air is dangerous, as benzene vapors inhaled will flow directly into the bloodstream.An 'unknowing' deception will occur, while in these benzene vapors.1. The olfactory nerve is desensitized...meaning, it becomes more and more difficult to discern or detect the smell of the benzene vapors, the longer one is in it...to the point where the olfactory and the taste buds on the back of the tongue can no longer function....the deception is: If you can't detect it or small it, must be non existent! Wrong! Primary stages of Acute Benzene Shock are probable. 2. If you have friends, relatives, loved ones in these areas (even the ones you don't necessarily like) tell them to stay out of the water, the fogs, rains or mists from the Gulf Oceans. They are now all full of benzenes. From this point forward, fatal benzene exposure will result if the life form remains exposed, in whatever manner. Combating Exposure to Oil-spill Toxins - Slowing down and 'Reversing' benzene poisoning CLIP

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Note: If you do not wish to receive these messages, please hit reply and type remove in the subject heading. Thank you.http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/16-burning-questions-about-the-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-that-we-deserve-some-answers-to

16 Burning Questions About The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill That We Deserve Some Answers To

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a national nightmare that seems to have no ending. Every day new details come out that are even more shocking than what we learned the day before. The truth is that life will never be the same in the Gulf of Mexico or for those who live along the Gulf coast. Now Barack Obama has made a big Oval Office speech and has tried to convince all of us that he is in charge of the crisis. Well, perhaps if he had tried to take decisive action a month ago the American people may have rallied around him. But right now the BP/government response to this disaster remains completely and totally chaotic. Nobody seems to be able to stop the leak, and BP has made the environmental nightmare far worse by dumping over a million gallons of highly toxic dispersants into the Gulf. U.S. government officials are running around holding press conferences and waiting for BP to do something. Meanwhile oil is pouring ashore and toxic gases are being detected at very alarming levels. The biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history is also quickly becoming one of the biggest economic disasters and potentially one of the biggest public health disasters.

The truth is that the American people deserve some answers about what in the world is going on down there in the Gulf. BP does not own the Gulf of Mexico and they have no right to keep the American people from seeing what is happening. There are some very serious health and environmental questions that have been raised in the media recently, but both BP and the U.S. government are not giving us any answers.

But we need some answers. People are getting sick. Crops are dying. Wildlife is being devastated. Birds are flocking north by the thousands.

But BP and the U.S. government continue to treat us as though we are on a "need to know" basis and that what we "need to know" is not much.

Actually, much of what they have decided to tell us throughout this crisis has turned out to be lies anyway.

The truth is that it is about darn time that someone started telling it to us straight.

The following are 16 questions about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that we really need some answers to....

#1) Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of more than 17,000 National Guard members along the Gulf coast to be used "as needed" by state governors. So what are all of these National Guard troops going to be doing exactly? Are the troops going to be used to stop the oil or to control the public?

#2) Barack Obama has also announced the creation of a "Gulf recovery czar" who will be in charge of overseeing the restoration of the Gulf of Mexico region following the oil spill. So is appointing a "czar" Obama's idea of taking charge of a situation?#3) Because it is so incredibly toxic, the UK's Marine Management Organization has completely banned Corexit 9500, so if there was a major oil spill in the UK's North Sea, BP would not be able to use it. So why is BP being allowed to use Corexit 9500 in the Gulf of Mexico?

#4) It is being reported that 2.61 parts per million of Corexit 9500 (mixed with oil at a ratio of 1:1o) is lethal to 50% of fish exposed to it within 96 hours. That means that 1 gallon of Corexit 9500/oil mixture is capable of rendering 383,141 gallons of water highly toxic to fish. So why was BP allowed to dump 1,021,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 into the Gulf of Mexico, and why aren't they being stopped from dumping another 805,000 gallons of these dispersants that they have on order into the Gulf?

#5) If these dispersants are so incredibly toxic to fish, what are they going to do to crops? What are they going to do to people?

#6) If the smell of the oil on some Gulf beaches is already so strong that it burns your nostrils, then what in the world is this oil doing to to wildlife that encounter it?

#7) Is it a bad sign that birds from the Gulf region are flocking north by the thousands?

#8) Why is BP being allowed to use private security contractors to keep the American people away from the oil cleanup sites?

#9) Why is BP openly attempting to manipulate the search results on sites like Google and Yahoo?

#10) Why has the FAA shut down the airspace above the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? What don't they want the American people to see?

#11) Senator Bill Nelson of Florida says that there are reports that there are additional ruptures in the sea floor from which oil is leaking. If there are quite a few of these additional ruptures, then how in the world does BP expect to completely stop this oil leak?

#12) Why are scientists finding concentrations of methane at up to 10,000 times normal background levels in Gulf waters?

#13) At some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico, levels of benzene have been detected at over 3000 parts per billion, and levels of hydrogen sulfide have been detected as high as 1192 parts per billion. Considering that these levels would be highly toxic to humans, why hasn't the general public been warned?

#14) Why are so many Gulf oil spill disaster workers showing up at local hospitals complaining of a "mysterious illness"?

#15) If "70% or 80%" of the protective booms are doing absolutely nothing at all to stop the oil, then what is going to stop the millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf from eventually reaching shore?

#16) It is being reported that the deepsea oil plumes are creating huge "dead zones" where all creatures are dying as they are deprived of oxygen. If this oil spill continues to grow could the vast majority of the Gulf of Mexico become one gigantic "dead zone"?

***UPDATE***

A reader named Stacy has posted a very alarming comment regarding what is happening in her area down in Florida that we wanted to share with everyone....

We live in the navarre, florida area http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=navarre,+florida&rlz=1R2MOOI_enUS366&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Navarre,+FL&gl=us&ei=w7AjTP2ALIOFnQf91cQm&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CB8Q8gEwAA

and in the past week almost every family we know has had vomiting and diarreha. This could just be anecdotal – maybe we just have a stomach bug circulating, but it is strange. We had a huge storm the week before it happened that blew in from the gulf so who knows.

Also, the city of destin, florida has taken it upon themselves to close the destin pass with their own purchased boom and barges. This is an elite destination and they are not waiting around for bp and their hired prison workers to clean the beaches. Apparently, the coast guard was at the meeting and told the locals that they will face criminal prosecution, but they don’t care. They are protecting their million dollar properties.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

STRATFOR is currently putting the finishing touches on a detailed assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the al Qaeda-inspired jihadist franchise in that country. As we got deeper into that project, one of the things we noticed was the group’s increasing reliance on criminal activity to fund its operations. In recent months, in addition to kidnappings for ransom and extortion of businessmen — which have been endemic in Iraq for many years — the ISI appears to have become increasingly involved in armed robbery directed against banks, currency exchanges, gold markets and jewelry shops.

This increase in criminal activity highlights how the ISI has fallen on hard times since its heyday in 2006-2007, when it was flush with cash from overseas donors and when its wealth led the apex leadership of al Qaeda in Pakistan to ask its Iraqi franchise for financial assistance. But when considered in a larger context, the ISI’s shift to criminal activity is certainly not surprising and, in fact, follows the pattern of many other ideologically motivated terrorist or insurgent groups that have been forced to resort to crime to support themselves.

The Cost of Doing Business

Whether we are talking about a small urban terrorist cell or a large-scale rural insurgency, it takes money to maintain a militant organization. It costs money to conduct even a rudimentary terrorist attack, and while there are a lot of variables in calculating the costs of a single attack, in order to simplify things, we’ll make a ballpark estimate of not more than $100 for an attack that involves a single operative detonating an improvised explosive device or using a firearm. (It certainly is possible to construct a lethal device for less, and many grassroots plots have cost far more, but we think $100 is a fair general estimate.) While that amount may seem quite modest by Western standards, it is important to remember that in the places where militant groups tend to thrive, like Somalia and Pakistan, the population is very poor. The typical Somali earns approximately $600 a year, and the typical Pakistani living in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas makes around $660. For many individuals living in such areas, the vehicle used in an attack deploying a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) is a luxury that they can never aspire to own for personal use, much less afford to buy only to destroy it in an attack. Indeed, even the $100 it may cost to conduct a basic terrorist attack is far more than they can afford.

To be sure, the expense of an individual terrorist attack can be marginal for a group like the ISI or the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). However, for such a group, the expenses required to operate are far more than just the amount required to conduct attacks — whether small roadside bombs or large VBIEDs. Such groups also need to establish and maintain the infrastructure required to operate a militant organization over a long period of time, not just during attacks but also between attacks. Setting up and operating such an infrastructure is far more costly than just paying for individual attacks.

In addition to the purchasing the materials required to conduct specific terrorist attacks, a militant organization also needs to pay wages to its fighters and provide food and lodging. Many also give stipends to the widows and families their fighters leave behind. In addition to the cost of personnel, the organization also needs to purchase safe-houses, modes of transportation (e.g., pickup trucks or motorcycles), communications equipment, weapons, munitions and facilities and equipment for training. If the militant organization hopes to use advanced weapons, like man-portable air defense systems, the costs can go even higher.

There are other costs involved in maintaining a large, professional militant group, such as travel, fraudulent identification documents (or legitimate documents obtained through fraud), payment for intelligence assets to monitor the activities of government forces, and even the direct bribery of security, border and other government officials. In some places, militant groups such as Hezbollah also pay for social services such as health care and education for the local population as a means of establishing and maintaining local support for the cause.

When added together, these various expenses amount to a substantial financial commitment, and operations are even more expensive in an environment where the local population is hostile to the militant organization and the government is persistently trying to cut off the group’s funding. In such an environment, the local people are less willing to provide support to the militants in the way of food, shelter and cash, and the militants are also forced to spend more money on operational security. Information about the government must also be purchased or coerced, and more “hush money” must be paid to keep people from telling the government about militant operations. In an environment where the local population is friendly, they will shelter militants and volunteer information about government forces and will not inform on militants to the government.

Sponsorship

One way to offset the steep cost of operating a large militant organization is by having a state sponsor. Indeed, funding rebel or insurgent groups to cause problems for a rival is an age-old tool of statecraft, and one that was exercised frequently during the Cold War. During that period, the United States worked to counter communist governments around the globe, and the Soviet Union and its partners operated a broad global array of proxy militant groups. In terms of geopolitical struggles, funding proxy groups is far less expensive than engaging in direct warfare in terms of both money and battlefield losses. Using proxies also provides benefits in terms of deniability for both domestic and international purposes.

For the militant group, the addition of a state sponsor can provide an array of modern weaponry and a great deal of useful training. For example, the FIM-92 Stinger missiles that the United States gave to Afghan militants fighting Soviet forces greatly enhanced the militants’ ability to counter the Soviets’ use of air power. The training provided by the Soviet KGB and its allies, the Cuban DGI and the East German Stasi, revolutionized the use of improvised explosive devices in terrorist attacks. Members of the groups these intelligence services trained at camps in Libya, Lebanon and Yemen, such as the German Red Brigades, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the Japanese Red Army and various Palestinian militant groups (among others), all became quite adept at using explosives in terrorist attacks.

The prevalence of Marxist terrorist groups during the Cold War led some observers to believe that the phenomenon of modern terrorism would die with the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, many militant groups, from urban Marxist organizations like the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Peru to rural based insurgents like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), fell on hard financial times after the fall of the Soviet Union. While some of these groups withered away with their dwindling financial support (like the MRTA), others were more resourceful and found alternative ways to support their movement and continue their operations. The FARC, for example, was able to use its rural power in Colombia to offer protection to narcotics traffickers. In an ironic twist, elements of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing death squad set up to defend rich landowners against the FARC, have also gone on to play an important role in the Colombian Norte del Valle cartel and in various “bacrim” smuggling groups. Groups such as the PIRA and its splinters were able to fund themselves through robbery, extortion and “tiger kidnapping”.

In some places, the Marxist revolutionaries sought to keep the ideology of their cause separate from the criminal activities required to fund it following the loss of Soviet support. In the Philippines, for example, the New People’s Army formed what it termed “dirty job intelligence groups,” which were tasked with conducting kidnappings for ransom and robbing banks and armored cars. The groups also participated in a widespread campaign to shake down businesses for extortion payments, which it referred to as “revolutionary taxes.” In Central America, the Salvadoran Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) established a finance and logistics operation based out of Managua, Nicaragua, that conducted a string of kidnappings of wealthy industrialists in places like Mexico and Brazil. By targeting wealthy capitalists, the group sought to cast a Robin Hood-like light on this criminal activity. To further distance itself from the activity, the group used American and Canadian citizens to do much of its pre-operational surveillance and employed hired muscle from disbanded South American Marxist organizations to conduct the kidnappings and guard the hostages. The FMLN’s financial problems helped lead to the peace accords signed in 1992, and the FMLN has since become one of the main political parties in El Salvador. Its candidate, Mauricio Funes, was elected president of El Salvador in 2009.

Beyond the COMINTERN

The fall of the Soviet Union clearly did not end terrorism. Although Marxist militants funded themselves in Colombia, the Philippines and elsewhere through crime, Marxism was not the only flavor of terrorism on the planet. There are all sorts of motivations for terrorism as a militant tactic, from white supremacy to animal rights. But one of the most significant forces that arose in the 1980s as the Soviet Union was falling was militant Islamism. In addition to the ideals of the Iranian Revolution, which led to the creation of Hezbollah and other Iranian-sponsored groups, the Islamist fervor that was used to drum up support for the militants fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan eventually gave birth to al Qaeda and its jihadist spawn.

Although Hezbollah has always been funded by the governments of Iran and Syria, it has also become quite an entrepreneurial organization. Hezbollah has established a fundraising network that stretches across the globe and encompasses both legitimate businesses and criminal enterprises. In terms of its criminal operations, Hezbollah has a well-known presence in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, where the U.S. government estimates it has earned tens of millions of dollars from selling electronic goods, counterfeit luxury items and pirated software, movies and music. It also has an even more profitable network in West Africa that deals in “blood diamonds” from places like Sierra Leone and the Republic of the Congo. Cells in Asia procure and ship much of the counterfeit material sold elsewhere; nodes in North America deal in smuggled cigarettes, baby formula and counterfeit designer goods, among other things. In the United States, Hezbollah also has been involved in smuggling pseudoephedrine and selling counterfeit Viagra, and it has played a significant role in the production and worldwide propagation of counterfeit currencies. The business empire of the Shiite organization also extends into the narcotics trade, and Hezbollah earns large percentages of the estimated $1 billion in drug money flowing each year out of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

On the jihadist side of militant Islamism, jihadist groups have been conducting criminal activity to fund their movement since the 1990s. The jihadist cell that conducted the March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings was self-funded by selling illegal drugs, and jihadists have been involved in a number of criminal schemes ranging from welfare fraud to interstate transportation of stolen property.

In addition, many wealthy Muslims in Saudi Arabia the Persian Gulf states and elsewhere saw the jihadist groups as a way to export their conservative Wahhabi/Salafi strain of Islam, and many considered their gifts to jihadist groups to be their way of satisfying the Muslim religious obligation to give to charity. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Pakistan saw jihadism as a foreign policy tool, and in some cases the jihadists were also seen as a tool to be used against domestic rivals. Pakistan was one of the most active countries playing the jihadist card, and it used it to influence its regional neighbors by supporting the growth of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as Kashmiri militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for use against its archrival, India.

After 2003, however, when the al Qaeda franchise in Saudi Arabia declared war on the Saudi government (and the oil industry that funds it), sentiment in that country began to change and the donations sent by wealthy Saudis to al Qaeda or al Qaeda-related charities began to decline markedly. By 2006, the al Qaeda core leadership — and the larger jihadist movement — was experiencing significant financial difficulties. Today, with Pakistan also experiencing a backlash from supporting jihadists who have turned against the state, and with the Sunni sheikhs in Iraq turning against the ISI there, funding and sanctuary are becoming increasingly difficult for jihadists to find.

In recent years, the United States and the international community have taken a number of steps to monitor the international transfer of money, track charitable donations and scrutinize charities. These measures have begun to have an effect — not just in the case of the jihadist groups but for all major militant organizations. These systems are not foolproof, and there are still gaps that can be exploited, but overall, the legislation, procedures and tools now in place make financing from abroad much more difficult than it was prior to September 2001.

The Need to Survive

And this brings us where we are today regarding terrorism and funding. While countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua play around with supporting the export of Marxism through Latin America, the funding for Marxist movements in the Western Hemisphere is far below what it was before the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, transnational drug cartels and their allied street gangs pose a far greater threat to the stability of countries in the region today.

Groups that cannot find state sponsorship, such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in Nigeria, will be left to fund themselves through ransoms for kidnapped oil workers, selling stolen oil and from protection money. (It is worth noting, however, that MEND also has some powerful patrons inside Nigeria’s political structure.) And groups that still receive state funding, like Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas as well as Shiite militant groups in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region, will continue to get that support. (There are frequent rumors that Iran is supporting jihadist groups in places like Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to cause pain to the United States.)

Overall, state sponsorship of jihadist groups has been declining since supporting countries realized they were being attacked by militant groups of their own creation. Some countries, like Syria and Pakistan, still keep their fingers in the jihadist pie, but as time progresses more countries are coming to see the jihadists as threats rather than useful tools. For the past few years, we have seen groups like al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb resort to narcotics smuggling and the kidnapping of foreigners to fund their operations and that trend will likely increase. For one thing, the jump from militant attacks to criminal activity is relatively easy to make. Criminal activity (whether it’s robbing a bank or extorting business owners for “taxes”) requires the same physical force — or at least the threat of physical force — that militant groups perfect over years of carrying out insurgent or terrorist attacks.

While such criminal activity does allow a militant group to survive, it comes with a number of risks. First is the risk that members of the organization could become overly enamored with the criminal activity and the money it brings and abandon the cause — and the austere life of an ideological fighter — to pursue a more lucrative criminal career. (In many cases, they will attempt to retain some ideological facade for recruitment or legitimacy purposes. On the other hand, some jihadist groups believe that criminal activities allow them to emulate the actions of the Prophet Mohammed, who raided the caravans of his enemies to fund his movement and allowed his men to take booty.) Criminal activity can also cause ideological splits between the more pragmatic members of a militant organization and those who believe that criminal behavior tarnishes the image of their cause. And criminal activity can turn the local population against the militants — especially the population being targeted for crimes — while providing law enforcement with opportunities to arrest militant operatives on charges that are in many cases easier to prove than conspiring to conduct terrorist attacks. Lastly, reliance on criminal activity for funding a militant group requires a serious commitment of resources — men and guns — that cannot be allocated to other activities when they are being used to commit crimes.

As efforts to combat terrorism continue, militant leaders will increasingly be forced to choose between abandoning their cause or possibly tarnishing its public image. When faced with such a choice, many militant leaders — like those of the ISI — will follow the examples of groups like the FARC and the PIRA and choose to pursue criminal means to continue their struggle.

In part two of this article, we trace the thread of the concept of 'survival of the fittest' from Condorcet to Malthus, to Spencer, to Wallace and to Darwin; elucidate the 'predictive programming' contained in science fiction novels; and illuminate the extraterrestrial connection, specifically the Freemasonic import of Sirius, the Dog Star.Science Fiction: A Means of Predictive ProgrammingAldous Huxley first presented the 'scientific dictatorship' to the public imagination in his book Brave New World. In Dope, Inc., associates of political dissident Lyndon LaRouche claim that Huxley's book was actually a 'mass appeal' organizing document written 'on behalf of one-world order' (Dope, Inc., 538). The book also claims the United States is the only place where Huxley's 'science fiction classic' is taught as an allegorical condemnation of fascism. If this is true, then the 'scientific dictatorship' presented within the pages of his 1932 novel Brave New World is a thinly disguised roman a' clef - a novel that thinly veils real people or events - awaiting tangible enactment.Such is often the case with 'science fiction' literature. According to researcher Michael Hoffman, this literary genre is instrumental in the indoctrination of the masses into the doctrines of the elite:

“Traditionally, 'science fiction' has appeared to most people as an adolescent genre, the province of time-wasting fantasies. This has been the great strength of this genre as a vehicle for the inculcation of the ideology favored by the Cryptocracy. As J.H. Towsen points out in Clowns, only when people think they are not buying something can the real sales pitch begin. While it is true that with the success of NASA's Gemini space program and the Apollo moon flights more serious attention and respectability was accorded 'science fiction,' nonetheless in its formative seeding time, from the late 19th century through the 1950s, the predictive program known as 'science fiction' had the advantage of being derided as the solitary vice of misfit juveniles and marginal adults.” (Hoffman, 205)

Thus, 'science fiction' is a means of conditioning the masses to accept future visions that the elite wish to tangibly enact. [Ed. Note: SF also widely uses Darwinian notions and language to project a fantastic future. This is another area of potential research.] This process of gradual and subtle inculcation is dubbed 'predictive programming.' Hoffman elaborates: 'Predictive programming works by means of the propagation of the illusion of an infallibly accurate vision of how the world is going to look in the future' (Hoffman, 205). Memes are instilled through the circulation of 'mass appeal' documents under the guise of 'science fiction' literature. Once subsumed on a cognitive level, these memes become self-fulfilling prophecies, embraced by the masses and outwardly approximated through the efforts of the elite.If the concept of 'predictive programming' seems fantastic, consider the case of H.G. Wells. Wells was mentored by T.H. Huxley, grandfather of Aldous. In turn, Wells would tutor Aldous and his brother, Julian. All of these men were members of the Freemasonic Lodge (the significance of which will be revealed shortly). Wells would author several 'mass appeal' tracts disguised as science fiction novels. Most notable of these novels was The Shape of Things to Come. Researcher Jim Keith offered the following assessment of Wells' The Shape of Things to Come:

“Interestingly, deceptively, the book is presented as a work of science fiction, but within its pages is Wells' best guess of how the New World Order would come to pass, from a 1930s perspective.”

While primarily a work of propaganda that pushes the one-world worldview of Wells and other internationalists during the first half of this century, the book is particularly revealing in that it also exposes many of the strategies that are to be employed (Keith, Mind Control, World Control, 13).Of course, not all of Wells' prophecies were 100% accurate. In his examination of The Shape of Things to Come, Keith concluded that:

“Wells was no prophet as regards to his timeline, only a science fiction writer privy to the plans of men with an interest in promoting the coming of the dictatorial world-state. His crystal ball is somewhat cloudy on certain details.” - Keith, Mind Control, World Control, 16

However, Wells' novel did exhibit a strange degree of precision. Jim Keith enumerated the various instances of uncanny accuracy in Wells' The Shape of Things to Come. Among one of the synchronicities Keith found in the text was Wells' description of the elite's primary apparatus for the amalgamation of the world's economic systems:

“Not surprisingly Wells places the City of London - the international center of banking culture - and its financial credit as responsible for knitting together world economic life over the previous hundred years. With these innovations in communications and finance, but also with the frustrations and wars inherent (so he says) in the existence of independent national states and sovereignties, came about the gradual dawning of the idea of the World-state.” - Keith, Mind Control, World Control, 14

Another instance of uncanny accuracy was Wells' prognostications concerning a second global war and a proliferation of infectious diseases:

“Wells has World War II beginning in 1940 in Poland, over an imagined slight taken by a Nazi over the actions of a Pole of Jewish origin. He characterizes World War II as it was, as an orgy of violence, and has the fighting end in 1949 - staying remarkably close to the actual dates of the conflict - only to be followed by another scourge, that of rampant disease, 'The Raid of the Germs.'”

Given the present-day climate of AIDS, Ebola, Mad Cow disease, and other resistant viral strains - and the persistent rumors of the military engineering of those same diseases - perhaps Wells' dating in this particular should have been moved forward a few years (Keith, Mind Control, World Control, 16).One of the most elucidating revelations found in The Shape of Things to Come was the group that Wells claimed would be central to the formation of a one-world government:

“Wells places responsibility for the creation of the New World Order in the lap of scientists of the future [emphasis added], the group he dubs the 'Technocracy'.” - Keith, Mind Control, World Control, 16

Wielding 'ostensible control over the knowable,' the scientists of this 'Technocracy' would implement a Fabian strategy of 'gradual ideological assimilation' (Keith, World Control, Mind Control, 16-17). Incrementally, this network of scientists would engineer the amalgamation of nation-states into a global government. Again, the Huxlian theme of a 'scientific dictatorship' emerges. This is the future that the masses have been conditioned to accept through predictive programming.The Sirius ConnectionIn Morals and Dogma, 33rd Degree Freemason Albert Pike bestows special honor upon Sirius, a heavenly body that 'still glitters in our Lodges as the Blazing Star' (Pike, 486). Indeed, Sirius represents a foundational axiom of the Masonic Craft. Pike explains that the star is: ''an emblem of the Divine Truth, given by God to the first men, and preserved amid all the vicissitudes of ages in the traditions and teachings of Masonry' (Pike, 136). As Pike continues, he reveals that Sirius has also held numerous other appellations: 'The Blazing Star in our Lodges, we have already said, represent Sirius, Anubis, or Mercury, Guardian and Guide of Souls' (Pike, 506).Whatever its name, the star represents an entity of great esoteric significance to Freemasonry:

“In the old Lectures they said: 'The Blazing Star or Glory in the centre refers us to that Grand Luminary the Sun, which enlightens the Earth, and by its genial influence dispenses blessings to mankind'.” (Pike, 506)

A little later, Pike reiterates: ''the Blazing Star has been regarded as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All-Seeing Eye, which to the Ancients was the Sun' (Pike, 506). Recall that, before the external characteristics of the oligarchs' control apparatus were cosmetically altered to present a 'scientific dictatorship,' the elite ruled through institutionalized Sun worship (Keith, Saucers of the Illuminati, 78-79). Within these statements, Pike provides a brief glimpse of the god of Freemasonry. Although the topographical features of its theocracy have changed, the deity has remained the same and his identity is associated with the star called Sirius.According to Pike, Sirius was responsible for imparting numerous innovations to mankind:

“He was Sirius or the Dog-Star, the friend and counselor of Osiris, and the inventor of language, grammar, astronomy, surveying, arithmetic, music, and medical science; the first maker of laws; and who taught the worship of the Gods, and the building of temples.” (Pike, 376)

It is interesting to note that, among his various contributions, this Freemasonic deity was responsible for the introduction of several forms of science. Does Sirius also represent the Lodge's 'ostensible control over the knowable?' Is the Dog-Star a symbol of the elite's 'scientific dictatorship?' Michael Hoffman further elaborates on the identity of Sirius:

“The mythical Satanic bringer of civilization to earth was supposed to be an alien from the star system Sirius, around whom the Egyptians and all subsequent Hermetic systems constructed their elaborate and obsessive religio-astronomic observances. This star Sirius also served as an astronomic secret code, an allegory of the illusory quality and inherent 'trickiness' of the material world.” (Hoffman, 26-27)

This Freemasonic mythology of extraterrestrial intervention in human evolution may be poised for a return. Given the impossibility of spontaneous generation, Darwinism has faced a major obstacle to its unquestioned primacy. Recognizing this obstacle, scientific materialist Francis Crick presented a theory bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Sirius myth. According to Crick, technologically advanced extraterrestrials 'seeded' the earth with life billions of years ago. Whether Crick was privy to the occult doctrines of the elite or was simply following the natural course of Darwinism's memetic metastasis, one thing is certain, he and other proponents of similar 'extraterrestrial intervention' theories are paving the way for the re-introduction of Freemasonic mysticism to mainstream science.There is a distinct possibility that the agentur of the elite are already in the process of facilitating the re-introduction of this myth. With the voracity of Darwinism in question, the effectiveness of this meme has been declining and, with it, the influence of the ruling class. Of course, this is something that the elite cannot allow to happen. Consider the following account of Linda Moulton Howe. During a meeting with Richard Doty, an intelligence officer with the United States military, Howe was presented with a briefing paper regarding alien visitation. In its body, Howe read an interesting claim regarding the crumbling theory of Darwinism: 'It stated that all questions and mysteries about the evolution of Homo sapiens on this planet had been answered and that project was closed' (Howe, 151).How convenient! By what means did these extraterrestrials facilitate the evolutionary process? Reiterating the basic contentions of Crick, the paper stated that:

“'these ETs have come at various intervals in the earth's history to manipulate DNA in already existing terrestrial primates and perhaps in other life forms as well. To the best of my memory, the time intervals for this DNA manipulation specifically listed in the briefing paper were 25,000, 15,000, 5,000, and 2,500 years ago.” (Howe, 151)

Faced with the impossibility of spontaneous generation and the inexorable collapse of Darwinism, the elite could now be invoking an 'extraterrestrial intervention' myth cribbed from their own doctrines. Given Richard Doty's military intelligence connections, this remains a very real possibility. The Freemasonic doctrine of Sirius has circulated within military intelligence groups for quite some time. According to researcher James Shelby Downard, there exists a cult of Sirius adherents at the highest levels of the CIA (Keith, Saucers of the Illuminati, 49). Researcher Jim Keith elaborates:

“He cites as one of their ritual locations the telescope viewing room of the Palomar Observatory in California. There, he says, the adepts of the Sirius-military intelligence cult enact rituals in the telescopically-focused light of the Dog Star, in imitation of the Egyptian priesthood, astral rays bathing the viewing chamber and the participants when the telescope is aimed Sirius-ward.” - Keith, Saucers of the Illuminati, 49

Keith proceeds to cite the case of military intelligence officer Michael Aquino:

“Utter madness? Tell that to Colonel Michael Aquino of U.S. military intelligence, the admitted head of the satanic Temple of Set, a deity [Set] identified in occultism with Sirius. Aquino makes no bones about the fact that he is the head of his offshoot of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan, known to draw many of its leaders from military circles. Again, we see the strange conjunction of Sirius, occultism, and military intelligence.” - Keith, Saucers of the Illuminati, 49

Those who comprise this 'strange conjunction' could also be responsible for the perpetration of a disinformation campaign, derivative of Masonic doctrine and designed to maintain the waning dominance of Darwinism.Darwinism DismantledProviding a complete and comprehensive delineation of the various concepts constituting Darwinism is a daunting task. The theory itself is a dense amalgam of 'isms,' thinly veiled occult concepts, philosophical doctrines, and ideologies. Again, Tennenbaum's statement that Darwinism 'is based on absurdly irrational propositions, which did not come from scientific observations, but were artificially introduced from the outside, for political-ideological reasons' seems succinct and accurate. Yet, with what outside sources do these 'absurdly irrational propositions' find their proximate origins?One of the major influences on Darwin was Thomas Malthus, an Anglican clergyman who had received the blessings of French deist Jean-Jacques Rousseau and radical empiricist David Hume (Keynes, 99). Malthus authored Essay on the Principle of Population, a treatise premised upon the thesis: 'Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio' (Malthus, 6). Although Malthus articulated his observations in succinct mathematical equations, the labyrinthine and complex machinations comprising the natural order typically defy such overly simplistic reductionism. Nonetheless, Malthus concluded that society should adopt certain social policies to prevent the human population from growing disproportionately larger than the food supply.Malthus' genocidal policies specifically targeted the poor. For instance, one of his proposals suggested the implementation of the following measures:

“Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the country, we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage settlement in all marshy and unwholesome situations. But above all, we should reprobate specific remedies for ravaging diseases; and those benevolent, but much mistaken men, who have thought they were doing a service to mankind by projecting schemes for the total extirpation of particular disorders.” (Malthus, 412)

Through the promotion of hygienically unsound practices amongst impoverished populations, Malthus believed that the 'undesirable elements' of the human herd could be naturally culled by various maladies. The spread of disease could be further assisted through discriminative vaccination and zoning programs. Yet, amongst one of Malthus' most shocking proposals was his suggestion concerning children:

“We are bound in justice and honour formally to disclaim the right of the poor to support. To this end, I should propose a regulation be made declaring that no child born' should ever be entitled to parish assistance' The [illegitimate] infant is comparatively speaking, of little value to society, as others will immediately supply its place' All children beyond what would be required to keep up the population to this [desired] level, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them by the deaths of grown persons.” (Malthus, 411, 430-1)

The dictum underpinning Malthus' logic would later be reiterated as 'survival of the fittest.' According to researcher Ian Taylor, the metastasis of this dictum 'can be traced from Condorcet to Malthus, to Spencer, to Wallace, and to Darwin' (Taylor, 65).Another one of the many constituent worldviews comprising Darwinism is Hegelianism. According to philosopher Georg Hegel, a pantheistic world spirit was directing 'an ongoing developmental (evolutionary) process in nature, including humanity,' which bodied itself forth as a 'dialectical struggle between positive and negative entities.' This conflict always resulted in a 'harmonious synthesis' (Taylor, 381-2). The same dialectical framework is present in Darwinism.In Circle of Intrigue, occult researcher Texe Marrs reveals the Hegelian structure intrinsic to Darwinian evolution. The organism (thesis) comes into conflict with nature (antithesis) resulting in a newly enhanced species (synthesis), the culmination of the evolutionary process (Marrs, Circle of Intrigue, 127). Of course, in such a world of ongoing conflict, violence and bloodshed are central to progress. Thus, Darwin's theory 'gave credence to the Hegelian notion that human culture had ascended from brutal beginnings' (Taylor, 386).Yet, Darwinism's roots go deeper than Hegelianism, returning to an esoteric source that has been there since the beginning. Hegel's ideas did not originate with himself, but Fichte (Sutton, America's Secret Establishment, 34). Who was Fichte? Antony Sutton reveals that he was a 'Freemason, almost certainly Illuminati, and certainly promoted by the Illuminati' (Sutton, America's Secret Establishment, 34). In fact, Hegel's dialectical logic reiterates the Masonic dictum :Ordo Ab Chao (Order out of chaos). Again, it seems that the bedrock upon which Darwinism rests is Freemasonry, a channel for elitist interests.The French Revolution: An Abortive Scientific DictatorshipAccording to academia's officially sanctioned historians, the French Revolution was little more than a rebellion of the commoner against a corrupt aristocracy and religious institution. However, in Essays on the French Revolution, Lord Acton made an interesting observation:

“The appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult but the design. Through all the fire and smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization. The managers remain studiously concealed and masked; but there is no doubt about their presence from the first.” (Reed, 136)

Who were the 'studiously concealed and masked managers' that orchestrated the French Revolution? In Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike revealed that it was Freemasonry that 'aided in bringing about the French Revolution' (Pike, 24). Indeed, the French Revolution represented the first full-scale attempt to tangibly enact the Masonic vision of a 'scientific dictatorship.'The Lunar Society, which was the precursor to the Freemasonic Royal Society, was intimately connected to the revolutionary movement in France. Freemason Benjamin Franklin acted as the 'shuttle diplomat between the French and English Utopian idealists.' The son of James Watt was accused of being a French agent by Edmund Burke in the British House of Commons. Joseph Priestley had pledged his wholehearted support to the revolutionary French National Assembly. Fellow Lunar Society member James Keir hosted a dinner to commemorate the fall of the Bastille. Most notably, Freemason and Lunar Society founder Erasmus Darwin actively supported the Jacobins (Taylor, 56).Who were the Jacobins? William Hoar reveals that they were 'agents of the Bavarian-bred Illuminati who operated out of the Club Breton'' (p. 2).The French Revolution exhibited all of the hallmarks of a 'scientific dictatorship':

* A humanistic philosophy emphasizing man's evolutionary ascent towards apotheosis: After the Legislative Assembly rejected God as the object of man's worship and praise, the National Convention paraded a woman representing Athena from the convention hall to the chapel of Notre Dame. There, the Goddess of Reason took her place on the high altar (Scott, 306). In a Masonic context, this ritualistic enthronement of human reason represented the unification of man's consciousness with the Omniscient, which is the ultimate end of evolution (Wilmhurst, 94). In other words, human reason became the ultimate source of moral precepts and man became God. * A Malthusian depopulation campaign: Under the direction of Illuminist Robespierre, the new revolutionary government began carrying out a massive depopulation campaign that became known as the Terror. While Robespierre's goal of eliminating 15 million 'useless eaters' was never realized, the Terror was successful in claiming the lives of some 300,000 Frenchmen, 297,000 of which were members of the lower and middle working classes. It should come as little surprise that Thomas Malthus was educated under the combined tutelage of two supporters of the French Revolution: Gilbert Wakefield and Lunar Society member Joseph Priestley (Taylor, 59). * A Hegelian framework: Recall the Hegelian structure intrinsic to evolution (Marrs, 127). In hopes of accelerating France's evolution towards a 'scientific dictatorship,' the architects of the revolution promulgated a classic Hegelian dialectic: the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. The synthesis of these two polar extremes resulted in the subversion of individualism and the maintenance of class stratification.

Of course, the rest is history. The revolution swiftly degenerated into a bloodbath and many of the conspirators were slaughtered by the very mobs they had created. Yet, the esoteric symbol of this abortive 'scientific dictatorship' remains. Long after she was enthroned in the cathedral of Notre Dame, Athena was transplanted upon new shores. Occult researcher Texe Marrs explains in Dark Majesty:

Today, statues of this Illuminist Goddess of Reason are found throughout the U.S.A.; one stands astride the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Another is atop the dome of the Capitol building in Austin, Texas. Her statue has been erected in town squares and city parks. But the most fantastic idol of the Goddess of Reason, the most majestic statue of the pagan lady who bears the torch of light, who illuminates, uplifts, and frees mankind, is found in New York's harbor. Towering above the shimmering but polluted waters, she holds in her outreached arm and hand a torch of fire and light. A gift of the Masonic Order, the modern inheritors of the Illuminati heritage, the Statue of Liberty was sculptured by Frederic Bartholdi, a member of the Masonic Lodge of Alsace-Lorraine in Paris, France. The statue is an esoteric idol of great significance to the secret societies plotting the New World Order.

Did the French Revolution truly end or did it simply change venues? Has America been designated the new headquarters of the elite's next 'scientific dictatorship?' One thing is certain, although she is no longer worshipped in the cathedral of Notre Dame, the Goddess of Reason has never relinquished her crown.The Rise of the Modern Scientific DictatorshipDarwinism shares the Hegelian framework with two other belief systems. In The Secret Cult of the Order, Antony Sutton states: 'Both Marx and Hitler have their philosophical roots in Hegel' (Sutton, 118). It is here that one arrives at the Hegelian nexus where Darwin, Marx, and Hitler intersect. Recall that Nietzsche-ism, Darwinism and Marxism were all mentioned together in the Protocols of the Wise Men of Sion. This was no accident. Nazism (a variant of fascism) sprung from Nietzsche-ism (Carr, XIV). Communism sprung from Marxism. Both were based upon Hegelian principles. Moreover, both were 'scientific dictatorships' legitimized by the 'science' of Darwinism. Ian Taylor elaborates:

“However, Fascism or Marxism, right wing or left - all these are only ideological roads that lead to Aldous Huxley's brave new world [i.e. scientific dictatorship], while the foundation for each of these roads is Darwin's theory of evolution. Fascism is aligned with biological determinism and tends to emphasize the unequal struggle by which those inherently fittest shall rule. Marxism stresses social progress by stages of revolution, while at the same time it paradoxically emphasizes peace and equality. There should be no illusions; Hitler borrowed from Marx. The result is that both Fascism and Marxism finish at the same destiny - totalitarian rule by the elite.” (Taylor, 411)

The interest of both Hitler and Marx in Darwinian evolution is a matter of history. While he was living in London, Karl Marx attended lectures on evolutionary theory delivered by T.H. Huxley. Recognizing the odd synchronicity between the communist concept of class war and the Darwinian principle of natural selection, Marx sent Darwin a copy of Das Kapital in 1873. Enamored of evolution, Marx asked Darwin the permission to dedicate his next volume to him six year later. Troubled by the fact that it would upset certain members of his family to have the name of Darwin associated with an atheistic polemic, Charles politely declined the offer (Taylor, 381).Numerous authors have established firm connections between Darwinism and Hitler's Nazism. Darwinian Arthur Keith documented the strong links between Hitler's racialist goals and the doctrine of evolution (Taylor, 409). In fact, in Evolution and Ethics, Keith candidly stated: 'The German Fuhrer as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution' (Keith, Evolution and Ethics, 230).In an analysis of Mein Kampf, contemporary author Werner Maser reveals that Darwin was the crucible for Hitler's 'notions of biology, worship, force, and struggle, and of his rejection of moral causality in history.' Finally, researcher Alfred Kelly provides a comprehensive history of Darwinism's popularization in Germany (Taylor, 409).Returning to the Hegelian nexus that binds Darwinism, Marxism, and Nazism, both the fascist and communist 'scientific dictatorships' represented tangible enactments of the dialectical framework resident in evolutionary theory. Marx was greatly influenced by Hegel (Taylor, 381). The concept of class struggle, which paralleled Darwinian natural selection, resulted from Marx's redirection of the Hegelian dialectic towards the socioeconomic realm. The proletariat (thesis) comes into conflict with the bourgeois (antithesis), resulting in a classless Utopia (synthesis). Marx, however, rejected the concept of a world spirit and relocated the revolution's causal source within the proletariat itself.The same Hegelian framework was resident within Hitler's genocidal Final Solution. The German people (thesis) came into conflict with the Jew (antithesis) in hopes of creating the Aryan (synthesis). In both the case of communism and Nazism, the results were enormous bloodbaths. This is the natural consequence of Darwinian thinking and the legacy of the 'scientific dictatorship.'In applying the ideas of Darwin, both communists and fascists have murdered millions. Both of these groups find their origins in the elite (the Illuminati), who are still pursuing the same objectives today. According to the Darwinian mantra of 'survival of the fittest,' victory will demand bloodshed. Humanity may stand to inherit the 'scientific dictatorship's' bloody legacy in the very near future.Eugenics and the Coming Global Scientific DictatorshipIntegral to Aldous' Brave New World is the practice of eugenics, which is closely aligned with Darwinism. Eugenics finds its origins with Darwin's cousin, Sir Francis Galton. Galton first introduced the concept of eugenics in Hereditary Genius, a racist polemic advocating a system of selective breeding for the purposes of providing 'more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing over the less suitable' (Galton, 24). In truth, Galton was not the originator of this concept. Sordid traditions of selective breeding and inbreeding had long been practiced by the ruling class to maintain the 'genetic purity' of their future stock. Galton merely assigned this tradition the appellation of 'eugenics' and popularized it as a legitimate science.In fact, this very same tradition was practiced by Darwin himself. In hopes of maintaining the 'genetic superiority' of his bloodline, Darwin married the youngest granddaughter of his maternal father. Researcher Ian Taylor reveals the results of this inbreeding project:

“Darwin's idea of inbreeding to produce superior stock can be seen to be a complete disaster in the case of his own ten children. Of the ten, one girl, Mary, died shortly after birth; another girl, Anne, died at the age of ten years; his eldest daughter, Henrietta, had a serious and prolonged breakdown at fifteen in 1859. Three of his six sons suffered such frequent illness that Darwin regarded them as semi-invalids while his last son, Charles Jr., was born mentally retarded and died in 1858, nineteen months after birth.” (Taylor, 127)

Yet, in spite of eugenics' historical failure, the concept was vigorously promulgated within the scientific community. In 1901, the statistics department of London's University College became the headquarters for the Eugenics Education Society. Motivated by Galton's vision of a future utopia ruled by a genetically engineered elite, the Eugenics Society would grow into a successful political movement. Aldous Huxley's eugenically regimented 'scientific dictatorship' presented in Brave New World was drawing closer to realization. Given his role in the tangible approximation of Aldous' roman a' clef, it is appropriate that one of the many accolades the scientific community bestowed upon Galton was the Huxley medal (Taylor, 405).However, the agenda of eugenical regimentation required an international machination by which it could be promulgated globally. That international machination was the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Julian Huxley, brother of Aldous, was the first director general of UNESCO and penned the organization's manifesto in 1947. Entitled UNESCO: Its Purpose and Its Philosophy, this document presents the following mission statement:

“Thus even though it is quite true that any radical eugenic policy will be for many years politically and psychologically impossible, it will be important for UNESCO to see that the eugenic problem is examined with the greatest care, and that the public mind is informed of the issues at stake so that much that now is unthinkable may at least become thinkable.” (Huxley, UNESCO)

As the unthinkable becomes thinkable, the fictional becomes factual and Brave New World becomes a reality. In 1977, author Claire Chambers clearly delineated the UN's role as a global scientific dictatorship:

“ Since its inception, the U.N. has advanced a world-wide program of population control, scientific human breeding [i.e., eugenics], and Darwinism.” (Chambers, 3)

In Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley prognosticated: "the twenty-first century' will be the era of World Controllers" (Huxley, 25). Aldous Huxley's 'scientific dictatorship' may not be confined to the pages of classic literature for much longer.

About Me

ROLAND SAN JUAN was a researcher, management consultant, inventor, a part time radio broadcaster and a publishing director. He died last November 25, 2008 after suffering a stroke. His staff will continue his unfinished work to inform the world of the untold truths. Please read Erick San Juan's articles at: ericksanjuan.blogspot.com This blog is dedicated to the late Max Soliven, a FILIPINO PATRIOT.
DISCLAIMER - We do not own or claim any rights to the articles presented in this blog. They are for information and reference only for whatever it's worth. They are copyrighted to their rightful owners.
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